Indiana tells tech park YE$

Certification for Innovation Park at ND means big money

Certification for Innovation Park at ND means big money

September 26, 2008|By MARGARET FOSOME Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND -- South Bend's economic future is being carved out of a 12-acre triangle of sandy earth on the city's northeast side. With a formal groundbreaking for Innovation Park at Notre Dame set at 3:30 p.m. today, city leaders heard the news late Thursday that the project has been approved as Indiana's 19th state-certified research park. That's big news for the region. State-certified research parks are able to capture up to $5 million in the growth in payroll and sales taxes generated in the park to invest there. And a $2 million state grant will help with construction costs. Innovation Park will be based near Twyckenham Drive and Edison Road, just south of the University of Notre Dame. Community leaders and educators are full of hope that ideas launched at the research park will attract entrepreneurs, jobs and new industry to replace the Midwest's fading reliance on traditional manufacturing. They expect new job opportunities in health care, aerospace research, nanotechnology and other fields. "Innovation Park has the opportunity to be a great economic driver for our regional economy," South Bend Mayor Stephen Luecke said. "It has the opportunity to transform the economy by bringing good-paying and clean jobs." Innovation Park will be home to a variety of start-up businesses, including expected commercial applications from the new Notre Dame-based nanotechnology venture. The first building will be done by next fall. It will be a three-story, 54,000-square-foot brick structure with laboratories, collaborative areas, conference rooms, offices and incubation facilities. That building will cost $14 million to $15 million, and Notre Dame is paying nearly all of that cost. The first building is expected to house 15 to 20 start-up companies. No tenants have been announced. Innovation Park formally includes the site on Edison Road, 83 acres downtown along Sample Street (in the former Studebaker Corridor), the Indiana University School of Medicine-South Bend and some office space in the Eddy Street Commons development south of campus. As new ideas launch at the main site, they are expected to "spin off" as new businesses or production facilities at the other locations. For community leaders, it's been a long road to today's ceremony. Patrick McMahon, executive director of Project Future, remembers first discussing the idea of a research park with Notre Dame administrators 25 years ago. Community leaders realized that, for such a project to succeed, Notre Dame would have to commit as a major player, he said. At the time, the university was focused primarily on undergraduate teaching. In recent years, Notre Dame's leaders have directed enormous attention and huge sums of money to building up the university's graduate programs and research. McMahon cited a long list of Notre Dame accomplishments that led to this moment: expanded science, engineering and medical research; hiring of top administrators with research experience at other top schools; a new $70 million engineering building under construction; winning the bid to lead the nanoelectronics venture; and generous university grants to pay for the most promising faculty research projects. Innovation Park will be managed by a private non-profit corporation, a fully owned subsidiary of Notre Dame. Other colleges will be encouraged to get involved through faculty research, student internship opportunities and jobs for graduates. The research park is intended to be an idea factory and a collaboration ground. It's designed to concentrate entrepreneurs in one place so they meet, talk and collaborate. "We kid that we are the eHarmony of innovation," park director David Brenner said, referring to a popular dating Web site. The state has never before granted a research park $2 million before construction, Indiana Secretary of Commerce Nate Feldman said. "It's because we view this opportunity with the University of Notre Dame," he said, "as such a huge opportunity for economic development in the Michiana region as a whole." Staff writer Margaret Fosmoe: mfosmoe@sbtinfo.com (574) 235-6329